In a contest described by Congress President Sonia Gandhi as a “clash of ideas”, an overwhelming 99 per cent members of an electoral college comprising MPs and MLAs voted on Monday to elect the country’s 14th President.
Although both presidential candidates — NDA’s Ram Nath Kovind and the Opposition’s Meira Kumar — have appealed to legislators for a “conscience vote”, partisan lines indicate a sweep for the ruling alliance’s nominee.
Lok Sabha Secretary-General Anoop Mishra, also the returning officer of the polls, told reporters that this could probably be the highest voting percentage in the history of Presidential elections.
A senior BJP leader claimed that around 527 of the total 776 MPs of Parliament had voted in Kovind’s favour. From the State assemblies, the ruling party estimates about 60 per cent of the MLAs’ support.
Each MP carries a weight of 708 votes while the value of an MLA’s vote varies in line with the population of the State she represents. The total value of votes is about 10.99 lakh, with nearly half coming from the 4,120 MLAs and the other half from the 776 elected MPs.
Cross-votingMeanwhile, there has been cross-voting from both sides. Senior Samajwadi Party leader Shivpal Yadav said in Lucknow that his vote was for Kovind. His grievance was that Meira Kumar had neither sought his vote nor that his brother and SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav. The latter, who voted in Delhi, was also not very keen on the Opposition’s candidate.
Sudip Burman, the leader of a group of sacked Trinamool Congress MLAs from Tripura, said they voted for Kovind. “We had announced it earlier itself because we cannot vote for a candidate who was supported by the CPI(M),” he said in Agartala. Members of the JD(U), the first Opposition party to have announced its support to Kovind, have also reportedly voted for Meira Kumar. JD(U) MP from Kerala, MP Veerendra Kumar, had announced that his vote would be for the former Lok Sabha Speaker.
The BJP and its allies hold over 48.6 cent of the electoral pool. To shore up its numbers, the BJP has enlisted the support of the Biju Janata Dal, Janata Dal (United), the AIADMK’s factions, Telangana’s ruling TRS, the YSR Congress, the PMK and six independent MPs in the Rajya Sabha. The party thus hopes to mop up over 65 per cent of the pool of votes at final count.
The Congress, on its part, wants to portray the elections, where the numbers are stacked heavily against it, as a “clash of ideologies”. At a meeting of the Opposition leaders on Sunday, Congress President Sonia Gandhi had said that the numbers may be against their nominees for President and Vice-President, but the “battle must be fought” to protect the highest Constitutional offices.
“We cannot and must not let India be hostage to those who wish to impose upon it a narrow-minded, divisive and communal vision.”